42 (number)

42 (forty-two) is the natural number following 41 and preceding 43.

Template:Numbers 40s
Cardinal	42 forty-two
Ordinal	42nd forty-second
Factorization	2 × 3 × 7
Divisors	1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 14, 21, 42
Roman numeral	XLII
Binary	101010
Hexadecimal	2A
Duodecimal	36
IEEE Float	> 42.0 = 42280000 hexadecimal
Hebrew	מב (Mem Bet)
Chinese	四十二
Lojban	vore

In mathematics

• 42 is bracketed by twin primes;
• It is a composite number;
• Its factorization makes it a sphenic number (and thus also a square-free integer);
• It is the product of the first three terms of Sylvester's sequence;
• Like the first four such numbers it is also a primary pseudoperfect number;
• It is the sum of the totient function for the first eleven integers;
• It is the third 15-gonal number;
• It is a Catalan number;
• It is the reciprocal of a Bernoulli number;
• It is a meandric number and an open meandric number;
• It is conjectured to be the "third moment of the Riemann zeta function". That means that when

${1 \over T}\int _{0}^{T}\left|\zeta \left({1 \over 2}+it\right)\right|^{6}\,dt$

is expanded as in powers of log(T), the leading coefficient—that of the 9th-degree term—is 42.

• 42 is a perfect score on the USA Math Olympiad (USAMO) and International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).
• In base 10, this number is a Harshad number and a self number, while is a repdigit in base 4 (as 222).
• The eight digits of pi beginning from 242,422 places after the decimal point are 42424242.

In science

• The atomic number of molybdenum. The element following molybdenum with atomic number 43 (technetium) has no stable isotopes.
• The number of teeth wolves and dogs (canines) have.
• 42° is the critical angle of refraction by water - it is the angle between a rainbow and the antisolar point.
• The light leaving a rainbow is spread over a wide angle, with a maximum intensity around 42°
• The number of minutes it would take a theoretical "gravity train" to travel to any point on earth.
• In one Grand Unified Theory, the Georgi-Glashow model, the inverse of the coupling constant is approximately 42.
• 10! (10 factorial) seconds is exactly 42 days.

Astronomy

• Messier object M42, a magnitude 5.0 diffuse nebula in the constellation Orion, also known as the Orion Nebula
• The New General Catalogue object NGC 42, a spiral galaxy in the constellation Pegasus
• The Saros number of the solar eclipse series which began on 1577 BC April 28 and ended on 297 BC June 5. The duration of Saros series 42 was 1280.1 years, and it contained 72 solar eclipses.
• The Saros number of the lunar eclipse series which began on 1293 BC January 24 and ended on 59 April 15. The duration of Saros series 42 was 1352.2 years, and it contained 76 lunar eclipses.
• Gliese 42 is a magnitude 7.17 K3 V orange dwarf nearby star (14.5 pc) in Sculptor, also known as HD 5133, CD-31°325, G269-049, GCTP 177.00, and LHS 1163.
• Ross 42 is a magnitude 11.52 dM4 e red dwarf nearby star (14.1 pc) in Orion, also known as Gliese 206, G097-047, and GCTP 1259.00.
• The planet Uranus' north and south poles face the sun 42 years before switching, (example) the north pole experiences 42 years of summer and 42 years of winter and vice versa.
• The moon Io hurtles around its orbit once every 42 hours at a distance of 420,000 kilometers or so from the center of Jupiter.
• In January 2005, Asteroid 2001 DA42 was given the name Asteroid Douglasadams, named for the author Douglas Adams that popularized the number 42 and died in 2001. With even his initials in the provisional designation, Brian G. Marsden, the director of the Minor Planet Center and the secretary for the naming committee, said, "This was sort of made for him, wasn't it?"

In religion

• The number of generations in the Gospel of Matthew's version of the Genealogy of Jesus.
• The number of months the Beast will hold dominion over the Earth (Revelation 13:5).
• In the ancient Chinese text the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu, chapter 42 is an explanation of the universe.
• The number of men of Beth-azmaveth in the census of men of Israel upon return from exile (Ezra 2:24).
• God sends bears to maul 42 of the youths who mock Elisha for his baldness (2 Kings 2:23).
• There are 42 principles of Ma'at.
• The number of lines on each page of the Gutenberg Bible, the first and oldest surviving book printed with movable type.
• 42 is the number with which God creates the Universe in Kabalistic tradition

In pop culture

The Ultimate Answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything

• The number 42 is The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, according to Douglas Adams' series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Numerous others have parodied this supposed mysticism of 42.
  • The query "the answer to life, the universe, and everything" into Google (without the quote marks), produces the answer 42 by Google calculator (See the above).
  • Geoff Fortytwo (formerly Busker) is a computer scientist who legally changed his surname in 1997 to reflect the Answer.
  • In one of the subsequent books in the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, it is implied that the question, to which 42 is the answer, is "What do you get when you multiply six by nine?" It has been noted that six times nine equals 42 in base 13. Douglas Adams denied that he was aware of this alternate solution when he wrote the book. He stated, "I may be a pretty sad case, but I don't write jokes in base 13!"
    • It was postulated, by mice, that the Question was, "How many roads must a man walk down?" Whether or not this is the case is unclear.
    • On page 7-10 of Volume 1 of "The Feynmann Lectures on Physics" is a marginal figure that illustrates the strength ratio of gravitation attraction and electrical repulsion between two electrons as 1/4.17 x 10^42. The denominator is also written out by hand as a long, snaking 4,170,... followed by 39 more zeros. Feymann mentions the unified field theory, the similarity of the inverse square laws, the disparity of the relative strengths, and asks "Where could such a large number come from? ... it involves something deep in nature."
• "FortyTwo" is a game played with dominoes in southwest (especially in Texas).
• The number of student "players" in a regulation Battle Royale is 42.
• In the game of Risk, there are 42 territories to be conquered.
• In the Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, EVE Online, 42 was the number used to create the online universe on 'Tranquility', the cluster on which EVE resides. The EVE Online community manager Charles Dane recently stated, "LeKjart said during his presentation at the first EVE Fanfest that 42 was the number used to seed Tranquility. Eight hours later, Tranquility was created, populated with objects and Non Player Characters, then went live to the public shortly thereafter."
• In Marvel comics 42 is the name of a massive super-human prison/holding cell located in the Negative Zone.

Ever since The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the number 42 has appeared several times in science fiction. For example:

• It is featured several times in The X-Files. For instance, Mulder's apartment number is 42.
• In the 2004 movie I, Robot, the FedEx robot that delivers a package to Detective Spooner at the beginning of the movie has the number 42 on its head.
• In the television series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, there are forty-two churches in Sunnydale.
• An upcoming episode in the popular British show Doctor Who is named "42".

In music

• The movement number of the Hallelujah Chorus in Handel's Messiah.
• The Level 42 band.
• The Disco Biscuits band from Philadelphia has a song titled "42"
• In "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Fat" it states that his "shadow weighs 42 pounds". In his new song "You're Pitiful", he sings about a 42 year-old nerd.
• The Rolling Stones' song "Undercover of the Night" makes reference to a "Center 42".
• Fetimo made his debut with the song '42' on Radio 1.
• In "Miami 2017 (I've Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)" by Billy Joel, he mentions 42nd Street in New York City.
• Icelandic band Strigaskór nr. 42.

In television and film

• In the 1950 file Harvey, James Stewart plays Elwood P Dowd, a lovable drunk who has an imaginary 6 foot rabbit. Elwood is 42 years old.
• The Kumars at No. 42 television series. In 2003, Sanjeev Bhaskar hosted a BBC show nominating The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as Britain's Best Loved Book. During the show Bhaskar stated that the Kumars' house number was in honour of the book.
• Appears as the number of hits on the hit counter at the bottom of a fake website for the show Arrested Development on FOX
• In Monsters Inc., a contamination is called Code 23-19. 23+19=42
• In the movie Finding Nemo, Nemo is taken to Dr. Philip Sherman's office at 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney NSW
• In The X-Files, Mulder has seen Plan 9 from Outer Space 42 times and his apartment number is 42.
• 42 is one of The Numbers on the television show Lost, along with 4, 8, 15, 16 and 23.
• Matthew Broderick's character, Steven Kovacs, in the movie The Cable Guy has this apartment number.
• The number of the spoofed government film in the Monty Python sketch "How Not To Be Seen" from episode 24. (Douglas Adams also appeared as a doctor in episode 42.)
• Summer of '42, a "coming-of-age" movie (1971) and novelisation written by Herman Raucher
• In the movie 28 Days Later, a radio transmission that promises an answer to the infection leads the protagonists to roadblock 42
• In one episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Eduardo asks, "What is 3 plus 2?" Frankie and Mr. Herriman answer 5, but Bloo says that "5 isn't good enough. I say it's 6, or 7, or even 42!" Also to note, 6 times 7 also equals 42.
• In one episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, during a lecture on sarcasm, Mac tells Bloo about "Sarcasm Lesson 42"
• In the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX episode "Let's Make a Duel," Tyranno advises Jaden, "If it's multiple choice, pick C!" Syrus adds, "That's right! And if it's a number, say 42!"
• In the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends movie "Good Wilt Hunting" one of the nerdy guys helping Coco had 42 on his T-shirt. As another reference to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the nerds declare their names to be "Douglas" and "Adam", the author (Douglas Adams) of the Hitchhiker's Guide series.
• Dr. House in the second season's episode number 17 of House claims that it is his favorite number (referred to a data in a Medical Record he knows by heart).
• The age of Peter Griffin on the Fox animated series Family Guy.
• On the television show The Simpsons, Homer is supposed to die at the age of 42.
• In the movie "Mousehunt", Alexander Falko proclaims that he owns 42 houses designed by Charles Lyle LaRue .
• In the show Aqua Teen Hunger Force in episode 8, "Revenge of the Mooninites", Meatwad is trying to count his tickets and shake keeps yelling random numbers to mess him up. One of the numbers he yells is 42.
• In the movie Ghost, Patrick Swayze's character first learns to move objects in the living world in the subway under 42nd street.
• In the TV show Invader ZIM, the episode called "Nano-Zim", Dib's Nanoship's health gauge hits 42 right before he loses all control of his arms and his sister Gaz takes over.
• In the Matrix, Neo and Trinity land on the 42nd floor in the elevator scene.
• An episode of Doctor Who, set to air in spring 2007, is titled 42.
• In an episode of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Ned was ranked number 42 on the popularity list.
• In the show Family Guy, Brian goes to rehab, his room number being 42.
• In Battlestar Galactica miniseries, Laura Roslin assumes the presidency of the United Colonies after discovering that all 42 government officials ahead of her in the presidential line of succession have been killed by the Cylon surprise attack.
• In the Anime TV show "Fullmetal Alchemist" episode number 42 is the episode where the Elric brothers obtain the Philosopher's Stone.

In video games

• 42 All-Time Classics is a Nintendo DS game that features 42 parlor games.
• A level in the game Destroy All Humans! is named "Area 42".
• In the MMOG EVE Online, the gaming environment is said to have been created by inputting the number 42 into a random galaxy generator.
• The EA game, Battlefield 1942 or "BF42" was the first game in the popular Battlefield Video Game Series
• The EA game, Battlefield 2142 is the most current game in the battlefield videogame series.
• In Gears of War the tank that Marcus Fenix drives is numbered 42.
• The game Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, has 42 single player missions.
• In the game Earthworm Jim 2, there's a parody of a television quiz show in which one of the questions is: "What is the meaning of life?". The answer is 42.
• In the game Quest For Glory I, a gargoyle asks you a series of questions to gain entry to a tower. One of these is "What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?" A reply of "42" will gain you entry and the response "I see you put some Deep Thought into it."

In sports

• The number of laws of cricket.

Jackie Robinson in his now-retired number 42 jersey.

• The jersey number of Jackie Robinson, which is the first and only number retired by all Major League Baseball teams
• The jersey number of football Hall of Famer, Ronnie Lott, safety for the San Francisco 49ers who retired his jersey number in 2003.
• The jersey number of Pat Tillman, which was retired on November 13, 2004 by Arizona State University.
• The jersey number of Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees closer (the last player to wear Robinson's number, under a grandfather clause).
• The jersey number of Elton Brand, power forward for the Los Angeles Clippers.
• The jersey number of basketball Hall of Famer James Worthy, small forward for the Los Angeles Lakers.
• The approximate length of a Marathon race in kilometers.
• Has been the car number of Kyle Petty and Lee Petty.
• Lee Petty, car number 42, Won the very first Daytona 500

In technology

• In the common computing language codification, ASCII, the decimal code '42' represents an asterisk - '*' - which is another common computing symbol used to represent a wildcard or an indicator of "everything".
• 42 is a common metasyntactic variable used by programmers. In the TIFF image file format, the second 16-bit word of every file is 42, which is used together with the first word to indicate byte order. In the reiser4 file system, 42 is the inode number of the root directory.

• The code number for the Microsoft .NET platform is 42, since it is their answer to "The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything". It also happens to be the building number that the Microsoft .NET CLR is built in. Coincidentally, it was the 42nd release build which was ready to ship as the final version 2 .NET framework, and so is present in the file version (2.0.50727.42) of every binary file.

• 42 is the default number of days a password can be used for before expiring in Windows Server 2003.

• The help entry 42 (accessed by typing ":h 42" in command mode) in the Vim text editor displays a reference to Douglas Adams.

• 42 is the number of U-slots in a standard IBM computer room rack.

In other fields

• Tower 42 is a skyscraper in the City of London, formerly known as the NatWest Tower. Coincidentally, in the BBC-TV production of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the cityscape of London over which a Vogon ship flies was filmed from the 39th floor of this tower, before it was renamed.
• In AdventureQuest, there is a door with the number 42 on it, which, if you click on it, says "This door contains the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. It is locked, bolted, and duct-taped shut." a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, at other times it'll say "beware the Leopardzard", a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the part of the book where Arthur Dent is describing the disused toilet in which he found the building plans that involved his house).
• On Neopets a programmer named Ollie constantly says 42 in reply to Neomails about the Altador Plot.
• The Number of quatrains that remain in Nostradamus's 7th Century.
• The number of U.S. gallons of oil contained in one barrel of oil (this equals just under 159 litres and 35 UK gallons).
• The age at which Elvis Presley died.
• The age at which Satchel Paige, St. Louis Browns (1906-1982) became the American League's first black pitcher in 1948.
• The age at which Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, retired as the oldest NBA player in 1989 .
• The maximum number received of any one present in the song The Twelve Days of Christmas.
• In Lewis Carroll's book, The Hunting of the Snark, which he wrote at the age of 42, "one who was famed for the number of things/ He forgot when he entered the ship:" had "...forty-two boxes, all carefully packed,/ With his name painted clearly on each:/ But, since he omitted to mention the fact/ They were all left behind on the beach." Its preface also references a 'rule 42' ("No one shall speak to the Man at the Helm").
• In Lewis Carroll's long poem Phantasmagoria, written when he was in his mid 30's, are the lines "But still to choose a brat like you / To haunt a man of forty-two / Was no great compliment." Arguably the number was simply chosen for rhyme and metre but, given his other references to the number, it is perhaps of more significance.
• Carroll's Alice has 42 illustrations. In Chapter XII, the king explains "the oldest rule in the book": "Rule Forty-two. All persons more than a mile high to leave the court".
• When a Rubik's Twist is folded into it's "ball" form, it forms a tetracontakaidigon, or 42 sided figure.
• The sum of the numbers or pips on a pair of conventional (six-sided) dice.
• The name of a Texan trick-taking game played with dominoes (see 42 (dominoes)).
• The number of the French department Loire.
• The name of an equipment finance and lease management product built by Northern Arch.
• The minimum age one had to have been to be elected a consul in the Roman Republic.

• Part of the name of 42 BELOW, a vodka produced in New Zealand.
• The number of perfect squares formed by the grid at a 19x19 Go board, when the "squares" are slightly rectangular with the ratio 13/12, as required by tradition.
• The number of hours that the potion caused Juliet to sleep for (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene 1, line 105).
• In Japanese, 4 (shi) and 2 (ni) are together pronounced like "going to death" (死に). Because of that, in Japan, 42 is considered as a disastrous number.
• Age (in years) of the horse that drove Mr. Pickwick to Golden Cross, as reported by a cabman (The Pickwick Papers, Chapter III).
• The number of holes on a Connect Four game board.
• The number of legs on the Centipede in Roald Dahl's book James and the Giant Peach.
• The world record for the most amount of people in one car is 42.
• In Scene One of "The Island" by Athol Fugard, John remarks that, "[Cell block] Number 42 is practicing the Zulu War Dance".
• There were originally 42 columns and 42 figures from Greek myth in the Parthenon.
• The number of enemies Gimli the Dwarf kills at the Battle of the Hornburg in The Lord of the Rings (changed to 43 in the film version, although Legolas states he killed 42 in the Extended Edition of The Two Towers).
• William Jefferson Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States, hence sometimes termed "42". Since George H. W. Bush is 41 and George W. Bush is 43, 42 has also come to signify the space between two shrubs in a hedge.
• Washington became the 42nd state in the Union on November 11, 1889.
• In New York City, 42nd Street is a main and very popular two-way thoroughfare. Landmarks on it include the Chrysler Building, Grand Central Station, the main branch of the New York Public Library, and Times Square. The New York City street is also the setting for a movie by the same name (which also gave fame to its eponymous title song), and which later inspired a musical adaptation, 42nd Street.
• HA 42 is an infamous Hip Hop and Graffiti crew with members in several states.
• In Oscar Wilde's book The Importance of Being Earnest, 42 is the age that Gwendolen Fairfax wishes Cecily Cardew were.
• The number of teeth in Moby Dick.
• The age at which the mathematician Alexander Grothendieck retired.
• In Julia Quinn's romance novel, Romancing Mister Bridgerton, before revealing her "brilliant idea", Lady Danbury asks, " 'How many great mysteries are there in life, really?'" The hero replies cheekily :"Forty-two?"

Historical years

42 A.D., 42 B.C., 1942, 2042, etc.

External links

• Deep Thought (another list of the meanings of the number 42, with a heavy Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy slant)